Many parents of kids in the 5-11 age group are signaling reluctance to get their youngsters inoculated against the virus, according to national polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Natasha Bhuyan, MD, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Family, Community and Preventative Medicine at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, tweeted Sunday that hundreds of children have died from the virus, making it vitally important for youths to get the shot. “Let’s change the narrative that the COVID vaccine in children is to protect adults – the vaccine is intended to protect *children themselves* from a preventable illness," Dr. Bhuyan tweeted.

A new study suggests that state laws requiring "universal" motorcycle helmet use – instead of helmet laws just for certain ages – may lower the rates of traumatic brain injuries in young riders. Traumatic brain injuries are "the biggest burden in trauma care, so we wanted to see whether having universal helmet laws versus age-specific helmet laws really made a difference in the younger population," said study co-author Bellal Joseph, MD, a trauma surgeon and associate professor of surgery at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

A proposed joint venture between Yuma Regional Medical Center and hospital management company LifePoint Health, a holding of the private equity firm Apollo Management Group, would change the hospitals' not-for-profit status to a for-profit model. Daniel Derksen, MD, professor of public health at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and director of the UArizona Center for Rural Health, discusses various hospital ownership and management models, including the fairly recent introduction of private equity firms into the ownership landscape.

Vaccination against COVID-19 provides stronger protection than immunity from a previous infection with the coronavirus, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Friday. Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, a professor of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson, cautioned that it can be very difficult to compare vaccine-induced immunity to infection-induced immunity. “What I would say is that these are maybe not the right terms of the debate,” he said. “The reason to prefer vaccine-induced immunity is that infections can make you really sick, not that they don’t leave you immune,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.

As border reopening nears, a $2.5 million grant and new HQ for the Ventanilla de Salud program are announced to support expected increase in visitors.

Psychologists and sleep doctors who study dreaming aren’t surprised if the hit Netflix series Squid Game is seeping into your non-waking hours. When you watch something that resonates with you, it’s going to stick with you, particularly if you watched a lot of the show in a short amount of time – and particularly if you’ve done so just before bed, says Michael Grandner, PhD, an associate professor and director of the sleep and health research program at the College of Medicine – Tucson. Dr. Grandner and other dream experts discuss why we dream and, more specifically, why we have nightmares.

Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, will join the College of Medicine – Tucson in January 2022 as head of the Department of Surgery.

A team led by Valley Fever Center for Excellence researchers successfully tested a vaccine for dogs, with two doses providing high levels of protection.

Most people pursue hobbies such as golf, music or art. College of Medicine – Tucson professor Todd Vanderah, PhD, constructs custom homes.